Submitted by Elizabeth Bischoff on the 2017 winter session program in Hawaii sponsored by the Department of Biological Sciences…
I visited the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor this week. After watching a short movie explaining what happened on December 7, 1941, we boarded a boat for the Memorial. It took about five minutes to reach it. As I sat on this boat getting closer and closer to the Arizona Memorial, I tried to imagine what it must have felt like to be there at Pearl Harbor on that terrible day. I thought about how heroic our military and the people of Hawaii were to live through such a tragic day. It made me think about another tragic day in America’s history. I was in kindergarten on September 11, 2001. Although I did not understand the significance of that attack that day, I came to understand the impact the attack had on the people around me. Living on Long Island and being so close to Ground Zero, I witnessed firsthand the loss of life to people that were so close to me. A few friends of mine lost a parent that day.
When I entered the room that listed the names of the men that were lost that day on the Arizona, I noticed that people were leaving leis as a symbol to honor these men who lost their lives so gallantly. The Hawaiian lei is a beautiful symbol of love and friendship in the Hawaiian culture. To give someone a lei is to decorate that person as a sign of affection. I will never forget the silence I experienced while at the Memorial and the sight of looking down and seeing the Arizona so clearly beneath me. It has been 75 years since that attack. Not many survivors are still around, so it is comforting to see that it has not been forgotten and that people visit this Memorial daily and leave leis to honor the brave men of the Arizona and all the people that witnessed this attack.